Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I - Charles Spencer

Written by Charles Spencer
Read by Richard Trinder
Format: MP3
Bitrate: Variable
Unabridged

Bloomsbury presents Killers of the King by Charles Spencer, read by Richard Trinder.

January, 1649. After seven years of fighting in the bloodiest war in Britain’s history, Parliament faced a problem: what to do with a defeated king, a king who refused to surrender?

Parliamentarians resolved to do the unthinkable, to disregard the Divine Right of Kings and hold Charles I to account for the appalling suffering and slaughter endured by his people. On an icy winter’s day on a scaffold outside Whitehall, the king of England was executed.

When the dead king’s son, Charles II, was restored to the throne, he set about enacting a deadly wave of retribution against all those - the lawyers, the judges, the officers on the scaffold - responsible for his father’s death.

Best-selling historian Charles Spencer explores this violent clash of ideals through the individuals whose fates were determined by that one, momentous decision. A powerful tale of revenge from the dark heart of royal history and a fascinating insight into the dangers of political and religious allegiance in Stuart England, these are the shocking stories of the men who dared to kill a king.

“Accomplished and gruesome, this masterful account of the fate of the regicides breaks all barriers in weaving the lives - and the grim fates - of many into a seamless, pacey and riveting read, underpinned by the depth of scholarship for which Charles Spencer is renowned. An exceptional and highly original history book that sheds new light on one of England’s bloodiest episodes.”